New £1 million IT system will speed up patient care

Published: 16:50, 31 March 2016

Health

A ‘ground-breaking’ project which has recieved £1 million NHS funding is set to install a new IT system to allow doctors across the board in Lincolnshire to see a patient’s complete medical records for the first time.

The Care Portal, is set to be ‘phased in’ across the county over the next two years, and will allow health and care professionals, who previously had only been able to see data held on their own systems, to access, if a patient gives permission, to a complete set of medical and care records, helping health and care professionals make decisions quickly and appropriately.

Eventually, patients will also reportedly be able to access their own records - including test results and medication information - as well as share them with family members and carers.

The initiative was developed as part of the Lincolnshire Health and Care (LHAC) programme – a partnership of 13 health and care organisations across the county working together to find ways of transforming services.

Gary James, accountable officer at Lincolnshire East Clinical Commissioning Group, which led the project for LHAC, said: “The Lincolnshire Care Portal is a major step forward for patients and is one of the first improvements to come from the Lincolnshire Health and Care programme.”

He added:” This will improve the quality and safety of care and will also save staff time by providing fingertip access to the information they need to manage that patient’s care. The Portal will reduce duplication because everyone will access the same information once instead of duplicating tests or asking patients to repeat information.”

LHAC aims to find new ways of delivering health and care which provide better quality services that are sustainable for the future.

A spokesman said that consultation involving ‘hundreds of clinicians and included engagement with over 15,000 residents in the county’, revealed the lack of access to full medical records as a key problem.

LHAC has secured nearly £1m of NHS funding to support the introduction of the Care Portal.